A GOLBORNE businessman is demanding to know how his sports-mad son, aged 22, died just a few weeks after a long-haul flight.

Former international rugby league star Bernard Ganley, now an accountant, was devastated when his son James died from a heart condition.

The death of James, who had just finished a degree in sport, came only three weeks after he stepped off a plane from Australia.

He had been in Canberra studying at the Australian Institute of Sport and had ambitions to be a sportsman.

Mr Ganley, who played for Oldham and Great Britain in the 1950s and was born in Leigh, said: "It's an odd occurrence. He died very suddenly. It's a complete mystery to us."

The question of how James - with no history of heart problems - came to die suddenly has haunted Mr Ganley for more than two years.

It is only now as publicity about the risks of deep vein thrombosis in long-haul flights have come to light that Mr Ganley feels he may be close to an answer.

The thrombosis, which forms in the legs during periods of inactivity such as sitting in cramped planes, can travel to the heart and cause heart failure.

He said: "It's really startled me to see how this would fit in. This sort of information just wasn't available at the time. But the more I read about it now the more applicable it becomes."

Mr Ganley, whose own father Bert Ganley played for Leigh RL and was part of the 1921 cup winning squad, said his son was very fit and had been subject to scores of fitness and medical tests during his university course.

As part of his studies he had learned all about muscles and the circulation of blood.

He had been in Australia to learn from some of the top sports trainers in the world before he flew home direct to England in September 1998 after the 20 hour flight.

However, Mr Ganley said airlines had failed to give out any information about the threat of deep-vein thrombosis.

His son's cause of death was given as heart failure by a coroner after an inquest.

Mr Ganley is convinced it would have led to a different verdict had the coroner known about the threat of deep vein thrombosis.

He is now considering having his son's medical evidence re-examined.

The death of James has left a huge hole in the life of Mr Ganley.

The former rugby star, who was also a TV and radio sports commentator in the 1960s and 70s, has a small shrine to James in the garden of his house in the village of Budworth Heath near Northwich where he now lives.

He died just three weeks before his 23rd birthday.

James had gone back to Newcastle to receive his degree - but died before the the ceremony.

Mr Ganley said: "It was a complete shock. We had a call from a policeman at five in the morning to say James had died the previous evening. He had been due to go out with his friends but said he was unwell. Later that day he was found dead in bed. We were mystified really, a young man of that age and his fitness and suddenly this just struck him."